Buyology [1]
7 Ways To Turn Your Instagrams Into Real-World Keepsakes
Taking Instagrams of your holiday gifts? These 7 services let you turn your Instagrams into the gift itself.
Instagram [3] is no stranger to the fact that the holidays are synonymous with sharing. The Facebook-owned photo-sharing service just enjoyed a record-breaking [4], photo-stuffed Thanksgiving, with more than 10 million photos shared on the day of all things delicious. As we enter the throes of gift-giving season, no doubt people will continue to share their holiday happenings. And a crop of companies is taking your Instagrams off the screen and into the real world. Here, we've rounded up 7 of them:
Printstagram [5], run by California outfit Social Print Studio [6], prints your Instagrams in a variety of sizes and forms. Order a few dozen of your favorites photos as square prints ($12), Polaroid-style Miniprints ($48 for 12), or bite-sized Tinybooks ($10 for 3). Can't narrow it down to your favorite 50? The $40 tear-out calendar lets you choose 365 of 'em, while posters can cram in up to 400.
All you need is an empty wall to use Projecteo [7], a teeny, LED-powered slide projector [8] that turns your Instagrams into luminescent, 2.5-foot spreads. Creative agency Mint Digital [9] has already raised more than three times its goal on Kickstarter [10], where you can still snag your own Projecteo and one photo wheel--good for nine photo slides--starting at $25.
CanvasPop [11]'s PicturePerfect technology lets you create larger-than-life canvas mounts of your photos without turning them into blown-up, grainy messes. Choose from a 12"x12" option for $39.95 or a 20"x20" for $114. As a bonus (we think), each print is finished off with a bulletproof (?) laminate.
Instaprint [12] is a location-based photobooth [13] that wirelessly connects to your phone to crank out charming, Polaroid-style snapshots. The contraption, designed by Brooklyn-based company Breakfast [14], practically demands it become a fixture of holiday parties for tech-lovers. Breakfast reached just shy of half its funding goal on Kickstarter [15] last spring peddling Instaprints at $400 a pop. But you can still rent them out, given you have a friend (or 10) to split the bill--a full-day session will set you back $7,500.
Another creation by Mint Digital [9], StickyGram [16] turns your Instagrams into magnets that are roughly the same size as the photos on your screen. $14.99 will get you a set of 9 stickables. As an added perk, StickyGrams come with free worldwide shipping.
Between all the scrolling and tapping, viewing photos on a mobile device can sometimes feel like work. Enter the Instacube [17], a digital photo frame that displays your Instagrams and is fit for the modern mantle. Silicon Valley design studio Design To Matter [18] ran a wildly successful Kickstarter [19] campaign that ended in September, but it's currently accepting pre-orders on its website [20].
We've previously referred [21] to Socialmatic [22]--the meta-tastic, real-life Instagram camera--as "Urban Outfitters semi-ironic stocking stuffer chic." As it turns out, this concept camera's creator, Antonio De Rosa, has since secured enough investor funding [22] to actually bring the Socialmatic to market. De Rosa writes [22] that he'll have a first prototype complete by the end of the year. No word on what the camera might ultimately cost, but we're guessing it's a little more wallet-friendly than the Instaprint.
[Image: Flickr user Piero Fissore [23]]
